With House and Senate Democrats holding more than 600 oversight hearings into the Bush Administration since assuming control of Congress in January, one might assume the two veteran lawmakers were urging an end to the relentless partisan attacks on President George W. Bush.

They weren’t.

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That Nadler and Maloney were the first Democrats to come to Spitzer’s defense is rife with irony. Maloney, once dubbed a “lightweight…devoting herself to symbolic causes that have little chance of passage,” opined that “four investigations equal a four-ring political circus.” But the Manhattan Democrat is a sponsor of exactly four different House resolutions targeting the Bush Administration, including three separate bills to censure the President.

UPDATE: An aide to Carolyn Maloney sent over the following statement: “The Congresswoman issued her statement because she believes that the time and energies of the Governor and his staff should not be tied up in multiple political investigations. The State Ethics Commission has the power and independence to investigate this matter thoroughly.”

UPDATE: And here’s a response from Nadler’s office: “The notion that one can draw a direct comparison between congress’s investigations into the Bush administration and the partisan witch hunt into Governor Sptizer is laughable and absurd. It’s not even apples and oranges. It’s apples and automobiles.

“The so called ‘investigation’ led by state majority leader Bruno is redundant. The Albany District Attorney has already determined that no criminal activity occurred. More importantly, congress is acting now because for six years, the Republican-led congress failed to carry out their constitutionally mandated oversight role and a politicized Justice Department ignored and possibly helped evade the rule of law.

“In Washington, I’m working to restore checks and balances; in Albany, Mr. Bruno is engaging in a partisan sideshow.”